Howard, Magic pick up first win at Staples Center

An early season MVP candidate, Howard had a rare off night but
still collected 17 points, eight rebounds and five blocks as the
Magic held off the Los Angeles Lakers, 104-97, on Sunday night.

Hedo Turkoglu collected 14 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists
and Rashard Lewis had 18 points and seven assists for Orlando,
which won in Los Angeles for the first time since March 17, 1996
- when the Lakers played at the Great Western Forum.

That victory came in Shaquille O'Neal's last season with the
Magic before getting traded to the Lakers the following
offseason.

Rather than look into the past, Lewis was more interested in
just getting the win - especially after Friday's loss vs. the
high-powered Phoenix Suns.

"It's important because we don't want to get used to losing
ballgames," Lewis said. "We want to be consistent throughout
the year."

The Magic secured Sunday's victory with a decisive 9-0 run,
capped by Keyon Dooling's steal and emphatic dunk to make it
100-93 with 1:44 left. Dooling deflected Lamar Odom's errant
pass to teammate Keith Bogans, who threw it back to Dooling for
the big finish.

"I was disappointed with the way we finished tonight," Lakers
coach Phil Jackson said. "We seemed to run out of gas in the
course of the ballgame - minutes played and conditioning right
now."

The 21-year-old Howard is having a dominant season, averaging
23.8 points and 15.0 rebounds entering Sunday's play. The
former No. 1 overall selection also ranks among the league
leaders with 15 double-doubles.

The 6-11, 265-pounder also was coming off a 30-point, 20-rebound
performance in Friday's loss to Amare Stoudemire and the Suns.

"It feels good here. I knew coming in, it was going to be a
tough game for us," Howard said. "I think they are No. 2 or No.
3 in the league in scoring. So we had to put up a lot of
shots.

"I think we did a great job of staying composed through all the
adversity that happened throughout the game and got a good win."

While he didn't post numbers as big in this one, Howard made his
presence felt against emerging Lakers center Andrew Bynum, who
has grabbed at least 10 rebounds 11 times this season.

Bynum had just 10 points and six rebounds on Sunday. And Lakers
superstar Kobe Bryant admitted that his team had a plan against
Howard - even if it didn't work to perfection.

"We just wanted to be physical with him, limit his touches and
try to keep him from catching it so deep in the paint," Bryant
said.

Bryant collected 28 points, six rebounds and five assists for
Los Angeles, which has lost five of its last seven games.

"They executed better than we did," the two-time scoring
champion said. "We did a pretty good job on our rotations, they
just knocked down shots right in our face."